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Police Target High Crime Areas

How crime stats drive the Neighborhood Task Force

By Charles Benson

MILWAUKEE - Wednesday was just another night on the streets for Neighborhood Task Force police officers Angela Juarez and Jason Enk. Their target area: N. 12th Street to N. 27th Street and Center Street to Keefe Avenue. It's not long before they join other officers involved in a drug bust. The suspect was charged with possession of a controlled substance according to Officer Juarez Most of the work involves pulling over cars - looking for suspicious activity. And there's a reason why they are in certain neighborhoods night after night. The game plan for NTF is to go into the worst of the worst neighborhoods. Every night they draw a box around the most violent neighborhoods and saturate those areas with a huge police presence. Crime stats determine where the box is drawn. Blue dots on their map show where all the violent crimes are taking place. More dots mean more cops. "Where's there a dot that's where NTF is going to go," said Juarez. Homicides are up a bit this year compared to last year's dramatic reduction. The increase makes the job more difficult. "Extremely difficult," Juarez said. "We are going to have beef up the patrol." It's a never ending a battle, but armed with their crimes stats, the NTF officers believe they can make a difference.